Blues Music Awards 2011

By Uong Jowo - Sunday, May 29, 2011
- 2

The Blues Foundation, based in Memphis, has announced the winners for the organization's 32nd annual Blues Music Awards after holding an awards ceremony on Thursday, May 5th, 2011 at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis. This year's event was a real houserockin' blow-out, running better than seven hours and featuring performances by dozens of deserving nominees. Like last year, the awards ceremony was broadcast live on XM Sirius satellite radio, on B.B. King's Bluesville channel.

There were few real surprises among this year's group of Blues Music Award nominees. There were a number of landmark albums in the blues released during 2010, among them Charlie Musselwhite's excellent The Well, Janiva Magness's The Devil Is An Angel Too, Eden Brent's Ain't Got No Troubles, and Buddy Guy's Living Proof, among others, and the aforementioned artists received multiple nominations apiece. Several artists, including Robin Rogers, John Nemeth, Tad Robinson, and Shemekia Copeland, all received one or more well-deserved nominations, and overall this year's crop of talent is pretty dang impressive. Winners are listed in bold type.

Blues Music Award nominees and winnters for 2011:

Acoustic Album of the YearThe Nighthawks - Last Train to BluesvillePaul Oscher - Bet On The BluesEric Bibb - Booker's GuitarSouth Memphis String Band - Home Sweet HomeLucky Peterson - You Can Always Turn Around

Best New Artist DebutMatt Hill - On the FloorChris O'Leary Band - Mr. Used to BeClaudette King - We're Onto SomethingPeter Parcek 3 - The Mathematics of LoveThe Vincent Hayes Project - Reclamation

Contemporary Blues Album of the YearBuddy Guy - Living ProofSmokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King - Have Blues Will TravelJohn Nemeth - Name The Day!Karen Lovely - Still The RainJaniva Magness - The Devil Is An Angel Too